It took a lot longer than expected, but last night I finally got round to watching Arsene Wenger: Invincible. It was certainly worth the wait and didn't disappoint.
The highs and lows of Wenger's reign as Arsenal manager were perfectly stitched together, often bringing a lump to my throat as some of the most beautiful moments in the club's history were revisited.
However, as I enjoyed the throwback to the good old days as we tend to say, one moment during the film stood out to me in particular.
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A host of Arsenal greats including Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Ian Wright and Patrick Vieira feature throughout, speaking about their time at the club under 'Le Professeur'. Whilst touching on the 2003/04 invincible season and explaining why the squad was so successful, Vieira mentioned something that continues to be appropriate today.
"You can have as much talent as you want to, but what will make a project successful is always going to be the people," the Frenchman said. 18 years on and that quote fits in perfectly with the project Mikel Arteta now finds himself overseeing at the club.
When the Spaniard took over in 2019, he walked into a dressing room that lacked togetherness, belief and fight. As he started to work more and more with the players, it became apparent that a major squad rebuild was needed in order to move forward.
The overall quality wasn't good enough and many of the characters didn't fit in with Arteta's non-negotiable approach. This has led to 12 players coming in and 13 players being sold during his tenure so far, in addition to a number of academy products also being promoted to the first-team squad.
One thing you can associate with all of Arteta's signings is that they possess unique personalities that have a positive influence on the rest of the team, which he very clearly wanted when speaking in 2020.
"For me, it’s the number one question when we bring someone to the club," Arteta said. "What is he like? How is he going to react in difficult moments? Is he a leader? Is he someone who is going to push his teammates? Is he hungry for himself, or does he have collective ambitions? Is he someone who can be stable and consistent in the long-term?"
After a turbulent period for the club, the togetherness of the team is the healthiest it's been for a very long time and a large part of that is down to the characters Arteta has looked to bring in.
At the beginning of the current campaign, three consecutive defeats left the club bottom of the Premier League. If this had happened at any other time during previous seasons, heads would have been down for a very long time and results wouldn't have dramatically changed.
Yet on this occasion, grit, hunger and passion were and continue to be at the forefront of Arsenal's turnaround over the last few months. The team spirit has meant that the Gunners are pushing for Champions League qualification as they currently sit fourth in the table.
I'm not saying that this means they will go on to replicate the success of the invincibles, not at all. But it was that elite mentality inside and around the club that started something special, and if that can be maintained under Arteta's guidance, there's no reason why this can't turn into an exciting fresh chapter for Arsenal Football Club.
